Successful trading of listed securities depends on being able to recognize and monitor those parameters which decisively affect the value of a security from among a preponderance of the most disparate information.
Yet particularly those who are new to the stock markets often face a world which is incomprehensible to them, one which seems to consist of innumerable new terms and unfamiliar conventions. Grasping the at-times, complex mechanisms of the market and the actions which can determine a security's performance, requires seemingly detailed specialized knowledge and is often too challenging for those new to the markets. Right from the very start, these neophytes have to make important, i.e., high-risk decisions which have a direct impact on the monetary stakes. The informed and rapid selection and interpretation of information can therefore be of crucial importance to success in this financial world. Yet the existing systems often impede a neophyte's access to this financial segment, unless the novice is wholly prepared to research the specialized terminology and procedural rules in depth beforehand.
The plurality and diversity of communication media available today, now virtually regardless of location or time, affords a good starting point hereto. Traditional information channels such as television, radio and print media, but above all the so-called new media of the internet and its diverse and interactive information offerings via websites, email, chat rooms and online blogs furnish current information virtually around the clock such that this media is ideally suited to being used for market-relevant business applications. The advantage of worldwide access to virtually all information is pitted against the serious disadvantage of those new to the stock market not only having to cull through a preponderance of information, but that comprehending the stock market language and the symbolism with which this information is coded as the cited information channels invariably use cannot be presupposed, especially in the case of one new to the market. An artificial barrier to access is thus initially raised, one which the neophyte can only break through by devoting a great deal of time and concentration to the subject. This is compounded by the fact that the information available on the interaction of rules and effects when trading listed securities is of a structure which is anything but motivating or self-evident to the market layperson. Thus, the stock exchange novice usually sees stock exchange information represented exclusively by numbers and diagrams along with the corresponding technical terms, their complex relationship only discernable at first glance to the market expert. Accordingly, which information could thereby be relevant to the market layperson—often a high-risk decision—the market neophyte has to date had to ferret out alone and yet still bear the consequences which, particularly in the stock market, can have far-reaching impact. Learning the basic principles of trading securities in this way often follows the trial-and-error principle. The diverse information offered is therefore not of real help to the market layperson in this phase of charting such still unknown territory.